The first big shipment of food aid in several months has arrived in North Korea, allowing the UN to temporarily resume distributions to more than two million people.

A spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme said about 39,500 tonnes of wheat was being unloaded at Nampo on North Korea's west coast and another 8,000 tonnes had arrived in Hungnam in the east.

The food, worth 9.5m euros ($10m), was provided by the European Union.

"With this shipment it will mean we can resume distributions to most, if not all, of all of those we cut off," WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke told BBC News Online.

At the end of last year, the WFP was forced to halt cereal distributions to three million hungry women, children and elderly people because of a marked downturn in donations.

Since then, donor countries have increased their pledges. In February, the US promised 40,000 tonnes of food, and an extra 60,000 tonnes if North Korea's improved the WFP's ability to monitor the distributions.

While donor countries have stressed that humanitarian aid is not affected by the political situation in North Korea, analysts said some governments do make a link.

North Korea's relationship with the world has been fraught since last October, when the US said that Pyongyang had admitted to a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Since then a stand-off has developed between Washington and Pyongyang.

On Monday, North Korea repeated its desire for direct talks with the US, while the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said on Sunday that Washington remains committed to finding a multilateral diplomatic solution.

Mr Cheney said he would travel to Asia next month for talks with North Korea's neighbours on the issue.

The region is keeping a close eye on nuclear activity in North Korea, following Pyongyang's announcement that it had restarted a nuclear facility which is capable of weapons development.

CRISIS CHRONOLOGY

16 Oct: US says N Korea admits to a secret nuclear programme

14 Nov: US halts oil shipments to N Korea

22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon nuclear plant

31 Dec: UN nuclear inspectors forced to leave

10 Jan: N Korea pulls out of anti-nuclear treaty

12 Feb: IAEA refers issue to UN Security Council

27 Feb: US says Yongbyon reactor restarted

March 2: N Korean jets intercept US surveillance plane in international airspace